Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve written three books about Tokyo life, non-fiction memoir-like short writings. I’ve now published three novels in the Detective Hiroshi series set in Tokyo. I’ve also published textbooks and three sets of essays in Japanese.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Tokyo Traffic was inspired by writing editorials about Japanese society, politics, and education. Japan is a very advanced country, but there are pockets of old practices, like the treatment of women, which never seem to change. I don’t think novels should be like editorials, but there is always an ethical element to most mystery/thrillers. I was inspired by the people I observe in Tokyo and by the city itself.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Writing itself is an unusual habit. Anything on top of that would be normal. I keep paper and pen everywhere. Bedside, living room table, the couch where I nap, my pocket, my office at university, my bag. I stop wherever I am and jot down what comes into my head.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I teach American Literature, so all the classics of the ‘canon’ have influenced me deeply, but I also did my Ph.D. on Charles Dickens, and read so many French novels as a grad student. Living in Japan, I read as many Japanese novels as I can, and those are now influencing me a lot. As for mysteries and thrillers, I just romp through as many and as varied a selection as I can.
What are you working on now?
My next novel will be the fourth in the Detective Hiroshi series. It’s tentatively titled, “Tokyo Overtime,” and focuses on the overwork culture of Tokyo. With a word like, “karoshi,” which means death from overwork, the workplaces of Tokyo are dangerous.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I wish I knew. Each one has some advantages. Readers are picky, and I mean picky in the best sense of being careful to save themselves disappointment. So, I try to promote widely and diversely in order to catch various kinds of readers. I try to think about how readers find new books that fit them.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write every day. Work out a treaty with your significant others. I think reading widely helps immensely, especially outside of your chosen genre. Outlining novels to teach them to university students was one of the most helpful things I’ve ever done. Read a lot of craft books, but take them all with a grain of salt. BIC: butt in chair.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Try to write the novel you can’t. I think that means always strive to write in ways that are fresh and challenging.
What are you reading now?
“Tsundoku” is the word for my reading. That means piled-up unread shelves. I have stacks of books, jam-packed e-readers: American politics, a biography of Jerry Garcia, a renegade history of American culture, Japanese manga, Kurt Vonnegut, Daniel Woodrell and John Cheever for classes, and a couple of craft books I take with a grain of salt (glass of wine, actually).
What’s next for you as a writer?
I want to write more in this series, but also a book on Japanese jazz, which is almost finished. I’ve started some short prose pieces about Tokyo, too.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Decameron, Catch-22, something by Dickens, Balzac, short stories by world authors, how to survive on a desert island, but it would be absolute agony to choose and I’d probably drown in the ocean before I could make the final selection.
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